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Russian troops seize gas hub ahead of Crimea referendum

The country's flag flies at a pro-Ukraine rally Saturday in Simferopol, on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Tensions are high in Crimea, where a referendum is to be held Sunday on whether to separate from Ukraine and seek annexation by Russia.

Photograph by: Vadim Ghirda/The Associated Press
, Postmedia News

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine — In an ominous development that is certain to inflame Ukrainian conjecture about the possibility of wider Russian military ambitions in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported Saturday that Russian troops in armoured vehicles and backed by attack helicopters had seized a village on a long spit 10 kilometres north of Crimea.

The location is of great strategic significance because a natural gas distribution centre there supplies fuel to the peninsula.

Crimea’s decision to secede from Ukraine and embrace Russia will not be ratified until Sunday, but some Crimeans could not wait for the referendum to begin celebrating a result that will redraw the contours of eastern Europe and reshape Russia’s relationship with the world.

Convoys of cars packed with exuberant Crimeans circled the coastal road through this storied port city on Saturday, honking and hollering while waving Russian flags and penants glorifying patriotic Russian Cossacks, honouring the Russian Navy and remembering the Red Army’s achievements in the Second World War.

Queues quickly developed as Crimeans waited for a chance to receive 10,000 Russian flags being distributed for free by the Russian Union of Crimea.

Global politics did not intrude on the festivities, which are to continue with parties in Sevastopol and the Crimean capital, Simferopol, during and after voting on Sunday. But in a sign of Russia’s increasing diplomatic isolation since it send troops into Crimea two weeks ago, China abstained Saturday from a U.S.-sponsored UN Security Council vote which stated that the referendum on secession was illegal and that “the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial sovereignty of Ukraine” must be respected.

China’s abstention was unusual as it usually sides with Russia. As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia can veto any resolution, and did so.

Russia would accept the referendum results in Crimea because of what its ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, described as an “illegal coup” three weeks ago in Kyiv that ousted its ally, former president Viktor Yanukovych. China presumably abstained because it is opposed to independence for Tibet and Taiwan, which it has always insisted is under the jurisdiction of the mainland.

Leaflets handed out on Friday and Saturday explained some of the benefits of joining Russia. The first principle was that nobody would be worse off economically under Moscow instead of Kyiv. Pensioners, for example, would continue to receive their monthly stipends, but in Russian rubles, not Ukrainian hryvna.

The Crimean parliament has already asked Moscow for $1 billion in aid this year, to cover an expected deficit of $80 million to $90 million per month. The first tranche of this money was needed soon as Kyiv had stopped sending money to Simferopol after officials there stopped collecting taxes on behalf of Ukraine two weeks ago.

Ukrainian media reported fresh attempts Saturday by Russian troops to get Ukrainian troops holed up inside their bases in Crimea to surrender their arms and return to the Ukrainian mainland or to switch sides.

There continued to be a blur of conflicting accounts about continuing political violence in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv that pitted pro-Kyiv and pro-Moscow factions against each other.

Adding to the rising tensions over the intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow acknowledged on Thursday that it had begun major military exercises, involving armoured and artillery units and airborne troops, at four places near the Ukrainian border. Similar exercises began shortly before Russian troops entered Crimea by air and by sea after the Russian Parliament authorized their deployment to protect ethnic Russians who were citizens of Ukraine.

The country's flag flies at a pro-Ukraine rally Saturday in Simferopol, on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Tensions are high in Crimea, where a referendum is to be held Sunday on whether to separate from Ukraine and seek annexation by Russia.

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